The Preacher's Discovery and the Woman's Snares

He is a person, imitating the deceptive Protagonist; for he does not have a face that is entirely ordered. Thus he says in Job: 'Who will strip off his face-covering?' (Job 13:23). You cannot say that this is his face. If you lift his face by word or by thought, something worse is found. Furthermore, he is hidden everywhere; 'into the folds of his armor' no one can enter. And if you enter, it is folded up again.

So also here the wicked woman called here—whether you mean regarding rhetoric or regarding opinion—does not have one snare. When you think you have escaped one, she lays another. A bond is in her hands. She immediately binds the one approaching. Her hand refers to practice and energy. the one acting according to her is not only hunted and snared, but also bound; he is judged a prisoner. The good man will be taken out from her before the face of God. The good man before the face of God is not such in essence, but the one hurrying to have virtue, so that he may become even more good for God. This one, therefore, does not fall into her, is not hunted, is not snared. But the foolish one is handed over to the good man 'not falling into her snares' or into the bonds. And 'being handed over' is often interpreted: after many times preventing, when that evil no longer prevents, a handing over to him occurs. And he will be caught sinning in her. No one sinless is caught by her. The beginning of being caught is having sinned. Indeed, it approaches even the saints; but since they do not sin, they are not caught by her, but are outside her, trampling her.

Furthermore: The ascent—have I encompassed it to know? It is a whole ascent; we say this. It is not far from what was said, that, since 'the maker of them is seen through the greatness of beauty and of creatures' (Wisdom 13:5), the one circling the whole cosmos and seeing all that God made, sees them as 'very beautiful' (Gen 1:31). But if he does not circle, but takes one by one, he does not see the beauty of the created. So, therefore, if one does not circle all the doctrines and all the virtues and their sequence, and all the creation and through it...

By knowing the creation, one knows the Creator, according to His power. Then, having grasped all things together in thought as if circling, wisdom finds the truth.

'Behold, I have found this,' says the Preacher (Eccl 5:7), 'one single thought to find, which my soul sought and did not find.' The Preacher is the teacher of the general assembly. 'The Preacher found this'—the 'finding' here is 'grasping.' But what kind? This very thing: that the woman who exists has snares in her heart and a bond in her own hand. To know this is of the Preacher. For this will benefit those listening to the Preacher.

Regarding 'one single'—since he speaks here in the plural; for it is not spoken about only one alone, that 'one single.' We mean, that is, about her snares; he says that her deceits and her snares find a foolish thought and teach it. For indeed, these women also mislead one another and lead forward not toward finding a good thought, but toward being cunning. But did he not say 'one' above? The evil is not single, but rather many and widely spread.

Listen closely, for he does not say these things about a specific woman, but about every woman having such zeal, 'one single thought to find.' And if you take it regarding the snares, you say that even the snares seem to be in agreement. For those professing false doctrines attempt to say that their false opinions agree. 'Which my soul sought and did not find.' My soul sought their thought, and did not find it. It is difficult to hunt. It is like the things said: 'Do we not ignore His thoughts?' (Job 11:6) 'Who could enter to strike His armor?' (Job 11:4).

But what then is the 'found' in the preceding? Here he says additionally: 'one single thought to find.' This thought I desired to see, so that I might also teach them. And 'did not find' can be said in such a way as 'not of the one willing nor the one running, but of the God who shows mercy.' From myself I found nothing. But God revealed to me; He showed me the cunning of this thought. For he does not say that the one running and the one willing achieves nothing.